A little help with templates, textures, and PhotoShop...

If anyone could submit a little intro as to how to use PhotoShop once you open up a template I would greatly appreciate it. Example something like, first you open up the template,( I know how to do that) then click on..... Like how do you a design, coloring, what buttons do you push, how do you import a pic onto a template, how do you fit the pieces together, like arms to the body, etc......? Or maybe provide a link to step by step instructions for working with a template and PhotoShop. Thanks a bunch.

All of that depends entirely on what you are making, so it's not something that can be explained the way you want it to be.

It's not something you can do by simply pushing a button; there's no "Make a Second Life Top" menu item. But there are, literally, thousands of ways to make an SL top. (Or anything else.)

To illustrate what I mean, I could tell you how to paint with traditional oil paint. "Dip the brush in the thinner, drag the brush tip in the desired color on your palette, and smear it on your canvas. When the paint runs out, repeat." There are a few variations that involve painting by removing paint, but that's the basic technique, and just leaves out all the skill.

But there's not even a basic technique for PS! It depends on what you want to do. You might start with the Pen tools, or the Brush, or a Pattern Fill, or a Shape, or any one of a dozen other ways.

It all comes back to knowing how to use Photoshop. The more comfortable you are with the program, the easier it is to design the clothing you see in your mind's eye.

So I strongly suggest that you start there. Do the tutorials in the Photoshop manual, and then do some of the many tutorials you will find on line. I suggest Good Tutorials (click on Basics, in the menu to the left of the screen,) or Planet Photoshop (start with Tools.) Or the many great tutorials on the Adobe site, of course. (Choose Photoshop as the Product, Getting Started as the Topic, and Basic as the Skill Level.)

Once you have learned enough about Photoshop to follow the stuff in the Manual that comes with the downloads, you'll be able to ask more specific questions, which we'll be able to answer.

But you can spend years learing this program. I've had it since it was first released, and use it nearly every day, and I'm still learning things I didn't know!

You don't fit the arms to the body, by the way. The "template" isn't a template at all; it's a UV Map, that tells Second Life what color to place under the various vertex points on the model, and how to extrapolate the colors between the vertex points. So everything on that map has to stay exactly where it is, and anything that's outside the "shapes" on the map won't show up on the Avatar in SL.

But any image can be used on the Avatar, and it will be interpreted according to that map. Try wearting a snapshot, and you'll see what I mean. (Go into Appearances, create a New piece of clothing, click on the Fabric thumbnail to the left of the sliders, and browse to the Snapshot in the Pick Fabric dialog that opens.)

Thanks Robin, This gives me a good "first step". Seems I have a lot more to learn than I even imagined.

Oh yeah. But the bright side is that it's lots of fun to learn it! (At least, I think so. )

I have both programs and have tried them both and I prefer Paint Shop Pro. To me it just seems easier to use.

IMO of course.

Keva there are classes in game also. http://www.dreamslightcloud.com/calendar.htm I hear Dreamslight cloud is really good. I plan to go to one of her classes saturday. Also check out yahoo groups or aol groups if you have aol and join one of the paintshop pro/photoshop groups..It was my brief foray into tag making that helped me move around in photoshop...though im far from expert..not even close..but im not afraid to experiement to see what does what .. Here's a tutorial that was a huge help to me to get you going

http://www.piercep.com/neph/?page_id=5

My goodness thanks! That Dreamslight looks very promising. Certainly will be checking that out asap.

Ok, I see on the Dreamscloud calander there is a Gimp class scheduled Jan 19th, but in SL events, I see no listing. Where does one go for the events listed on Dreamscloud calander?